The Vigil Masses are often held in the late afternoon to cater for those with young children. It's interesting to note that before the Second Vatican Council, there were no Christmas Eve Vigil
Masses. Only midnight Mass was offered on Christmas Eve followed by
Masses on Christmas morning.

Nowadays, the
late Masses are referred to as "Midnight Masses" even though they are
actually held at 10pm or 11pm.

Pope Francis will celebrate what the Vatican calls " Midnight Mass’ at 8:30pm December 24th in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. No doubt this will be televised live on the usual feeds. I'll add them as and when they appear.

Midnight Mass is especially beautiful because "it’s right at that moment when the past and the future meet – the old is dying and the new is coming.” .......................

“The children’s Mass has been an extravaganza, and it’s a
nice feeling to watch the kids and see the service through the
children’s eyes of faith." ................................

“But there is a solemnity at the
evening Mass — at the time that Christ was born. It’s a highlight of the
year, along with Easter. The solemn Mass gives a very different feeling
to the Christmas season. With the quiet calm and music prior to Mass,
you can almost hear the angels sing when Mass starts."................................................

“Christmas morning Mass has freshness to it – you can feel
that the little baby is in the world and feel the change in the world
because of that.”..........................

“We try to make the services all
beautiful. The growing excitement over these Masses shows they are
definitely not an afterthought. That’s a good feeling because a lot of
work and energy go into them.”..........................................................................This is a wonderful poem for Christmas from John Shea's The Hour of the Unexpected called "Sharon's Christmas
Prayer."

She was five

sure of the facts,

and recited them

with slow solemnity

convinced every word

was revelation.

She said

they were so poor
they had only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
to eat
and they went a long way from home
without getting lost. The lady rode
a donkey, the man walked, and the baby
was inside the lady.
They had to stay in a stable
with an ox and an ass (hee-hee)
but the Three Rich Men found them
because a star lited the roof
Shepherds came and you could
pet the sheep but not feed them.
Then the baby was borned.
And do you know who he was?

Her quarter eyes inflated
to silver dollars, The baby was God.

And she jumped in the air
whirled round, dove into the sofa
and buried her head under the cushion
which is the only proper response
to the Good News of the Incarnation.

by John Shea, The Hour of the Unexpected, Allan, Texas, Argus Communications, 1977

“The way to begin healing the wounds of the world

is to treasure the
Infant Christ in us;

to be not the castle but the cradle of Christ;

and,
in rocking that cradle to the rhythm of love,

to swing the whole world
back into the beat of the Music of Eternal Life.”

This song wouldn't be sung at Mass (!) but I've included it because so many of my happy childhood memories of Christmas are associated with Perry Como carols and songs, and it has also been re released this Christmas in an arrangement by Aled Jones and Terry Wogan for Children in Need . Click here for their video.

Waiting.....

Light of God Lead Us Power of God Hold Us Joy of God Heal Us Laughter of God Bless Us Love of God Caress Us

Next up, two very different versions of the beautiful hymn Silent Night

Straight No Chaser Silent Night.. It gets going after the first naff 10 secs or so..

Silent Night An Acoustic Version by Robbie J

and another from Robbie - O Little Town Of Bethlehem..

Rachel and Ferdia singing O Holy Night at 2012 Late Late Toy Show on RTE. A few wobbles but still lovely..

The presenter's outfit at the beginning of this brings back a few memories from some years ago of a few elfish revellers at a Midnight Mass I attended.They turned out to be great singers too !!

Still, Still, Still.

The music in the video below ends at 3:07 and the video is 5:34 minutes long, perhaps allowing us that space to savour on this night, time for a sacred pause to breath slowly and deeply to take in the precious silence and awesome meaning of this night for humankind.

Archive Lent Posts 2013 and 2012

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My Poetry

My Poetry

I Can Haz Music

Seamus Heaney Quotes

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More from Seamus Heaney

“History says, Don't hope On this side of the grave,But then, once in a lifetime,The longest-for tidal wave of justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme.So hope for a great sea changeOn the far side of revengeBelieve in miracles....”

“The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.” ―

“I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.”

and five more......

On his inspiration: 'The completely solitary self: that's where poetry comes from, and it gets isolated by crisis”

On which animal he'd prefer to be:"I might enjoy being an albatross, being able to glide for days and daydream for hundreds of miles along the thermals. And then being able to hang like an affliction round some people's necks."

On fame:"The gift of writing is to be self-forgetful, to get a surge of inner life or inner supply or unexpected sense of empowerment, to be afloat, to be out of yourself. The prizes can’t help you at all.”

On becoming a poet:"My quest for precision and definition, while it may lead backward, is conducted in the living speech of a landscape and a language that I was born with. If you like, I began as a poet when my roots were crossed with my reading."

On authority"At home in Ireland, there's a habit of avoidance, an ironical attitude towards the authority figure. "

Taize Chants

Click on the candle above for a collection of chants from Taize

Kyrie Chants

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Dynamite !!

“You Christians have in your keeping a document with enough dynamite in it to blow the whole of civilization to bits...” Mahatma Gandhi

"The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake."-- Basil C. Hume

Celtic Christianity may offer us a lifeline in the form of an approach to faith which is rooted in the imagination...[Celts] excelled at expressing their faith in symbols, metaphors and images, both visual and poetic.They had the ability to invest the ordinary and commonplace with sacramental significance, to find glimpses of God’s glory throughout creation and to paint pictures in words, signs and music that acted as icons opening windows on heaven and pathways to eternityIan Bradley The Celtic Way

Guaranteed to Lift The Spirit

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A Concord Pastor Comments

Every Monday Morning join Fr Austin Fleming for a prayer . Click on the coffee cup for the archive

Sacred Space

Pope Francis Twitter Feed

A Big Heart Open To God

Pope Francis -How The Church Will Change

Dialogue between Pope Francis and Eugenio Scalfari:

Daily Meditations Pope Francis

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Favourite Quotes from Pope Francis

“Thanks to magnanimity, we can always look at the horizon from the position where we are. That means being able to do the little things of every day with a big heart open to God and to others. That means being able to appreciate the small things inside large horizons, those of the kingdom of God.

This offers parameters to assume a correct position for discernment, in order to hear the things of God from God’s ‘point of view.’ … However the risk in seeking and finding God in all things, then, is the willingness to explain too much, to say with human certainty and arrogance: ‘God is here.’ We will find only a god that fits our measure. The correct attitude is that of St. Augustine: seek God to find him, and find God to keep searching for God forever.”﻿

-- Pope Francis

L'Osservatore Romano English Version

Newspaper of The Holy See Click on Pic

Carlo Caretto's Love Letter to His Church

How much I much criticise you my church and yet how much I love you !

You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe you more than I owe anyone. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.

You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness. Never in the world have I seen anything more obscurantist, more compromised, more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous or more beautiful.

Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face – and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your arms!

No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely you. Then too – where should I go? To build another church?

But I cannot build another church without the same defects, for they are my own defects. And again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ’s church. No, I am old enough. I know better!"

Fr. Richard Rohr Quotes

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Cyber Theology Daily

Word On Fire Blog Posts

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Cardinal Tagle Video Interviews

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Franciscan Quote of The Day

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Did the Woman Say ?

Did the Woman Say?

Did the woman say,When she held him for the first time in the dark of a stable,After the pain and the bleeding and the crying,‘This is my body, this is my blood’?

Did the woman say,When she held him for the last time in the dark rain on a hilltop,After the pain and the bleeding and the dying,‘This is my body, this is my blood’?

Well that she said it to him then,For dry old men,brocaded robes belying barrennessOrdain that she not say it for him now.

~Frances Croake Frank

Daily Reflections Creighton Ministries

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Sunday Mass Readings

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Great Resource for Sunday Scriptures, Commentaries and Reflections Click on Banner

Playing For Change

Sites on Prayer

Great Quotes

A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.

Sidney Sheldon

There are things you can’t reach. Butyou can reach out to them, and all day long.The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier.

Mary Oliver

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person."

~Rumer Godden, A House with Four Rooms, 1989

“And""You can get all A's and still flunk life." "Lost in the mystery of finding myself alive."

Walker Percy

"The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”

A tough life needs a tough language-and that's what poetry is. That's what literature offers- a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place.Jeanette Winterson

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way.”

- C.S. Lewis

The independent hearts of Celtic descendents everywhere still yearn for the solitary place, still rejoice in the goodness of creation, still see the Lord beside them as they walk, still see Him in the face of friend and stranger. The gospel light with its eastern fire still gleams. The truth still lingers in the heart.Pat Robson – The Celtic Heart

People are itchy and lost and bored and quick to jump at any fix. Why is there such a vast self-help industry in this country? Why do all these selves need help?

They have been deprived of something by our psychological culture. They have been deprived of the sense that there is something else in life, some purpose that has come with them into the world."

-- James Hillman

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government only when it deserves it.--Mark Twain

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.--George Orwell

We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice: - we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.-- George Orwell

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your own experience or convictions.--Dag Hammarskjöld

If you want to build a ship don't herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

For what are we, without hope in our hearts, that someday we'll drink from God's blessed waters?" -Bruce Springsteen

"Sometimes grace works like waterwings when you feel you are sinking."-Anne Lamott

"A prayer may be a wordless inner longing, a sudden outpouring of love, a yearning within the soul to be for a moment united within the infinite and the good, a humbleness that needs no abasement or speech to express it, a cry in the darkness for help when all seems lost, a song, a poem, a kind deed, a reaching for beauty, or the strong, quiet inner reaffirmation of faith. A prayer in fact can be anything that is created by God that turns to God."

Paul Gallico

"God does not die when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason."

Dag Hammarskjold

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.”

― Paul Hawken

The greatest religious challenge of our age is to hold together social action and spiritual disciplines. This is not just a theological necessity, dictated by the need to integrate all of life around the reality of the living God. It is a matter of sheer survival. The evils we confront are so massive, so inhuman, so impervious to appeals and dead to compassion, that those who struggle against them face the real possibility of being overwhelmed by them.”

~ Theologian Walter Wink

One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours?I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.

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